Process intensification in the oil and gas industry: A technological framework

Implementation of Process Intensification (PI) in the oil and gas (O&G) represents the most promising way to achieve sustainable development of this industry in an environmentally friendly manner. Multi novel PI technologies were investigated, but only a few were applied to petrochemical processes and on a limited commercial scale. This inconsistency between implementation and research interest could be attributed to the absence of a special methodology or a road map for PI implementation in O&G particularly. Previous works used methodologies that did not emphasize on the O&G industries. Accordingly, establishing such a special methodology becomes mandatory to enhance implementation. This paper presents a complete and concise PI framework, which depends on rated energy consumption as a key driver for implementation, where the rating considers implicitly multiple other criteria. The framework also newly classifies the potential PI tools for the O&G into separation and reaction tools, while the PI traditional hierarchy classifies them into equipment and methods. The process-based classification reflects better the specifics of O&G facilitates for proper tools selection by designers. According to this framework, the paper examines the potentials of important technologies found in the literature. Drivers and constraints concepts are considered, and a map of the PI implementation in the main O&G facilities is provided.